Raza exhibition in NYC

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I’m one of those Philistines. I dig modern art more than the classics, and Rothkos are pretty to look at, but their high price utterly escapes me. I’m very finicky about what I read, but I sometimes feel like I was born without certain senses. A sommelier in my kitchen might be bored by the mundaneness of the choices. I wish someone would sit down and say, ‘It’s ok. Most people think someone is crazy-eyed when they mention the top notes in a wine’s bouquet. Really, you’re perfectly normal.’

So I’m probably not the best person to introduce this post, but here goes. A NYC art gallery is exhibiting the works of the eminent Indian abstract painter Syed Haider Raza:

Raza’s form was heavily influenced by the Abstract Expressionism of the New York School of Painters including Sam Francis, Kandinsky and Rothko. He has also been especially inspired by moderist masters, particularly by the feverish intensity of color of Cezanne and Van Gogh’s work. However, the underlying and continuing inspiration in his work has been his homeland, India…

Born in Madhya Pradesh, India in 1922, Raza studied at the JJ School of Art, Bombay. In 1950 he received a scholarship from the French government to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He was awarded the Prix de la Critique in 1956 in France. In 1962, The University of California, Berkeley, invited him as a visiting lecturer where he did some pivotal work. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India, the highest honor bestowed by the Indian Government. He currently lives and works in Gorbio [in France] and Paris.

This is the first show for my buddy Priyanka Mathew, the new gallery director. She says, ‘He’s 82, and this probably will be a rare and perhaps final visit to New York. A disciple of his, Sujata Bajaj, will also be mounted.’ I assure you she’s referring to Bajaj’s paintings  Bajaj shuttles between homes in Norway, France and Pune along a disjoint meridian.

Here are photos from an exhibition of Raza’s work last year. Here’s the gallery’s current Indian art exhibit, Shakti 2005. It’s quite lovely.

Syed Haider Raza exhibition, Gallery Arts India, Sep. 16 – Oct. 9, 2005; opening reception Sep. 16; 206 Fifth Avenue at 25th St., 5th Floor, Manhattan; times TBD Continue reading →

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Why does Pakistan support Jaish and Lakshar? [updated]

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I have a most un-mutinous confession to make – there are lots of things in the world I don’t understand, yet I still blog about them. One of these things is the Pakistani government’s continuing support of Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, two Pakistan based militant/terrorist groups that claim Kashmiri independence as their goal. As I mentioned earlier, the Pakistani government has a very soft policy towards these two organizations:

Some security analysts in Pakistan have been critical of the government’s seemingly soft stance in relation to Harkat and Jaish – wondering why they have not been dealt with as severely as some of the other groups. [BBC]

These two groups were implicated in the attack on the Indian Parliament that came just a few months after the 9/11 attacks in the USA:

The atrocity of 13 December [2001] when five terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament, killing eight officials and a gardener, has given New Delhi the high moral ground. New Delhi insists that the five were Pakistanis and belonged to two Pakistan-based terrorist groups – Jaish-e-Mohamed (Army of the Prophet Mohamed) and Lakshar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pious). Islamabad has denied the claim and refused to accept the bodies. [cite]

They’re also the only terrorist group linked with the first group of British bombers:

Not only is there no clear link between the two sets of suspects, there is no established link between either group and al-Qaeda or any other known terror network, say British officials. There are lots of tantalizing links back to Pakistan from the July 7 gang, three of whom had parents born there. When Shehzad Tanweer — who killed seven on a train near Aldgate station — and Mohammed Sidique Khan — who killed six at Edgware Road station — left Leeds to visit Pakistan in 2004, they were frequently seen with members and recruiters of the banned militant organizations Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, according to several people in Samundri, a town near the village where Tanweer stayed with his uncle. [cite]

Here’s the question – why does Musharraf continue to support these two groups, given the high costs involved?

Continue reading →

Bollywood Delusions: Race vs. Language

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katrina kaif.jpg There’s a short article in Bollywood Mantra about the new Hindi film actress Katrina Kaif (pictured right), who has a small role in Sarkar and a starring role in Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya. She speaks Hindi with a heavy British accent, so professional ‘dub’ actresses fill in for her. Two other films of hers coming out will also have other women’s voices:

Katrina Kaif will have two releases in as many weeks and Akshay Kumar, who starts with her in Raj Kanwar’s Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, thinks she’s shaping up to be a “major heroine”. But Katrina’s relatively small walk-on part in Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar and her full-fledged part in David Dhawan’s Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya have one thing in common – she did not speak her own lines in both films. Reason? Apparently Katrina’s Hindi is a bit on the weaker side. In fact, Varma had originally decided to retain Katrina’s ultra-anglicised voice in keeping with her US-returned character in Sarkar. But the Hindi spoken by the actress was way too outlandish to pass off as a non-resident Indian accent. (link)

This raises a whole complex of issues, most of which point in one way or another at the weird neuroses that continue to haunt Bollywoood. But let me just make two points. Continue reading →

Desi Lord Mayor of Manchester

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Pretty soon, the press will be full of stories concerning  the alienation of British Asian Muslims. While this is an important perspective, and may be an accurate depiction of a segment of British Muslim society, it is not the whole picture. 

There are also success stories like that of Mohammed Afzal Khan, Manchester’s first Asian Lord Mayor. Khan was a high school dropout who worked  in the textile mills until he had a typically desi epiphany:

One night in the late 1970s, clocking off from work following another long night shift, he began the trudge out of the valley toward his home. At the top of the hill, he turned to survey the scene: the chimney jutting out of the mill, the red-tiled roofs on the terraced housing emblematic of working-class northern England.
“I thought, ‘Do I want to spend the rest of my life in this mill?’ ” Khan recounts. “The answer was no. That was the moment that changed everything. I realized that education is paramount.”   [CSM]

Khan went back to school to learn the basics, working his way through college while his wife (he got married at 19) trained as a dentist. After a series of jobs “from bus driver to youth worker,” he became a police constable. Although he had achieved a measure of security and status, this wasn’t enough for Khan.

He spent 2-1/2 years as a police constable, developing a keen interest in the law. When he was informed he would not be allowed unpaid leave to study, he took a risk and quit.
“My police superintendent said, ‘You’re making a big mistake, your future is here,’ ” he recalls. “I said ‘I’ll live with my mistake.’ And I have.”  [CSM]

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Tracing my roots

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Some of the comments on SM of late have disturbed me greatly.  I am begining to realize that a lot of people are very confused about who they are.  Even worse they seem obsessed with trying to convince people who they are not.  While sitting in a jury pool all day last Tuesday I did a little bit of reading.  I learned of National Geographic’s Genographic Project which attempts to trace the path of humans as they left Africa.

[Spencer] Wells, 36, is a population geneticist using science in global pursuit of the greatest story not yet told: the story of how humankind traveled from its origins in Africa to populate the planet. The most telling clues lie with isolated, indigenous tribes like the Tubu, for their DNA remains, in a sense, the purest. Their unique genetic markers, characteristic mutations in a defined sequence of DNA, are like flags waving from the place their ancestors have inhabited for thousands of years–the starting point for ancient migrations. Any venturesome Tubu who crossed the Sahara to see the outlying world, and propagated in the process, passed on one or another of those genetic markers to his or her offspring. Any traveler who came through the Tibesti and intermarried did the same. Wells might take a cheek swab from an investment banker in Boston and find that same genetic marker: proof that one of those Tubu created a family line that leads, in some circuitous way, over continents and generations, from the Tibesti to an oak-paneled office in Back Bay. It’s in the hope of tracing myriad journeys such as this that Wells, a newly named National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, is undertaking one of the most ambitious and expensive research adventures in the National Geographic Society’s 117-year history: the grandly named Genographic Project.

At a cost of 40 million dollars over five years, the brunt of it borne by National Geographic, IBM, and the Waitt Family Foundation, the Genographic Project under Wells’s direction is establishing 11 DNA-sampling centers around the world, with the goal of collecting 100,000 cheek swabs or blood samples from mostly indigenous peoples like the Tubu. A sense of urgency infuses the project: Year by year, at an ever quickening rate, the outside world is crowding in on, and at the same time absorbing, indigenous peoples. A Tubu who moves to Paris will still have the genetic markers that distinguish him as a Tubu, but the geographical context for his markers will be gone. As for the Tubu who remain in the Tibesti mountains, they may marry more with outsiders as modern technology makes contact more likely. Generation by generation, tracing the last routes of historical migration of such isolated people grows that much harder. Wells wants to map as many routes as he can while their geographical origins are relatively intact.

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More than a Brimful

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My favorite quartet (yes, I have such a thing) will be dropping a new CD on August 23rd.  I first fell for the eclectic sounds of Kronos because of the soundtrack to the 1995 movie Heat.  SM tipster Niraj informs us that the group’s new album titled You’ve Stolen My Heart: Song’s from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood will feature Asha Bhosle.  Take a listen.

kronos.jpg

From the fantastical land of India’s “Bollywood,” the world’s largest film industry, comes the music of the Kronos Quartet’s latest CD-a vibrant homage to the pre-eminent composer of classic Bollywood, Rahul Dev “R.D.” Burman. In more than 300 film scores, Burman entranced audiences with melodies steeped in intrigue, festooned with jewels, and stained with tears and henna-an eclecticism mirrored in ever-surprising combinations of Indian classical and folk music, swing jazz, psychedelic rock, circus music, can-can, mariachi, and more. You’ve Stolen My Heart finds Kronos in the eminent company of Bollywood playback singer Asha Bhosle, Burman’s wife and the most recorded artist in the world, who contributes new vocal performances to 8 of the CD’s 12 tracks. Inspired by the chameleonic spirits of Burman and Bhosle, Kronos ventures into novel instrumental territory on this disc-the first to be produced by quartet founder David Harrington-augmenting its acoustic sound with keyboards, gongs, cymbals, mouth percussion, and more. Kronos is also joined by longtime collaborators Zakir Hussain (tablas, trap drums) and Wu Man (Chinese pipa), completing this musical masala of eras and cultures.

1. Dum Maro Dum – Take Another Toke
2. Rishte Bante Hain – Relationships Grow Slowly
3. Mehbooba Mehbooba – Beloved, O Beloved
4. Ekta Deshlai Kathi Jwalao – Light a Match
5. Nodir Pare Utthchhe Dhnoa – Smoke Rises Across the River
6. Koi Aaya Aane Bhi De – If People Come
7. Mera Kuchh Saaman – Some of My Things
8. Saajan Kahan Jaoongi Main – Beloved, Where Would I Go?
9. Piya Tu Ab To Aaja – Lover, Come to Me Now
10. Dhanno Ki Aankhon – In Dhanno’s Eyes
11. Chura Liya Hai Tum Ne – You’ve Stolen My Heart
12. Saiyan Re Saiyan – My Lover Came Silently

Kronos will be playing in the UCLA Live concert series on Sat Sept. 24th in case anybody would like to go see them with me. Continue reading →

IIT Virginia

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A Ugandan politician came up with a novel scholarship scheme a couple of weeks ago (via chick pea):

A Ugandan member of parliament has pledged to reward [high school] girls for their chastity by paying their university fees if they are virgins when they leave school… Bbaale County MP Sulaiman Madada said any girl in his district who wanted to take part in the scheme aimed at promoting girls’ education would be given a gynecological examination by health workers to check they were virgins. [Link]

“We want to encourage people to be morally upright and not to go into early marriages,” Madada said, adding, “We also want girls to resist defilement. We do not want these girls to get exposed to AIDS…” [Link]

If ‘free schooling for virgins’ were extended to desis, it would rapidly bankrupt both the IITs and the MITs. But the program would hardly cost a paisa at certain art schools in Bombay, and even in Delhi it would get cheaper over time.

Of course, if you interrogated virginal high school students before handing out the money, you might find out why they want to go away to college in the first place 

Madada has not extended his offer to young men, because there is no medical examination to prove their virginity. [Link]

You don’t need a medical exam for that. Just ask if they blog.

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Pakistani Writers in English: A Question of Identity

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shamsie.jpg Soniah Kamal of Desilit Daily posts an essay by Muneeza Shamsie on Pakistani literature from the May 7 Dawn (no direct link). The article raises some questions for me about the nature of Pakistani literature, including the basic question of how to define it.

Shamsie has edited several anthologies of Pakistani literature, including one that is scheduled to come out this year (And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women; not yet listed). Muneeza Shamsie is also the mother of Kamila Shamsie (pictured right), who seems to be a bit of a prodigy, having published four novels by the age of 32.

I’m grateful to Muneeza Shamsie for offering a long list of Pakistani writers in English; some of them are names I was unfamiliar with. But there are also some things Shamsie does in her essay that I find to be puzzling. Continue reading →

Chai Egg Creams?

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The Grey Lady lets us know that desis have crossed a new frontier, with desi cooks infiltrating older ethnic food establishments in different parts of New York:

Exhibit A: the egg cream. For New Yorkers of a certain age, this was the nectar of a Jewish neighborhood, and Gem Spa was the drink’s sacred temple, certified as such by magazines and travel writers. Gem Spa is still there, still turning out egg creams at its narrow patch of a soda fountain in the East Village. But the person who owns the store and taught the staff to make this curious concoction of seltzer, milk and chocolate syrup is Ray Patel, a 62-year-old immigrant from Gujarat state in India.

He learned the recipe, including the secret stirring motions that create a frothy head resembling beaten egg whites, from the previous owner (Italian), who learned it from the old owner (Jewish).

“People try to learn new things in a land of opportunity,” is Mr. Patel’s elegant explanation for how an Indian came to make a drink that is considered exotic west of the Hudson River, let alone in Gujarat.

I’ll bet they wrote the same article 30 years ago when the guy behind the counter was Italian. Gujarat is now as exotic as Sicily used to be, so the story becomes interesting enough to retell. What they miss is how little has changed. The owner may be a bit darker, but he’s still named Ray.*

However, don’t look to Ray to spice up the old standards. Ray’s probably a purist,  but somewhere there is a young Jewish foodie who’s hybridizing the old Egg Creams with desi flavors. Cultural appropriation goes both ways. Continue reading →